Christmas is here, this year I decided to add a Christmas Carol to
the website home page, I chose "Do they Know its Christmastime?" I
have always liked this Christmas Song as it makes us think seriously
about how lucky we are, things we take for granted, things as simple
as having a permanent supply of water in our bathroom or kitchen is
absolutely unthinkable for many people around the world.

We also have the idea that people in need are far away from us,
whenever we talk about families in need of food or children who
haven't food or toys everyone immediately thinks about the African
continent, granted that there are many people in the African
continent who need our help, but we always tend to forget that there
are people close to us who are also in a great need for our help.

A recent TV programme brought me back down to earth last week, in
this programme a TV crew converted a warehouse into a weekend home
for an orphanage, this programme made me think about how lucky
many children are by simply having a family that look after them, we
don't remember the large number of orphan children in our own
countries that although they are very well looked after by the
people who sacrifice their lives to fulfilling their needs it can
never be compared with the feelings and experiences which a child
lives with his own family.

One of the reasons to establish this website in the first place was
always to help children, teachers and other visitors, obviously in
an educational way, I think I am meeting those objectives as time
passes the numbers of visitors increase and the numbers of schools
using the website for educational reasons have also increased,
nevertheless I think that my goal is still far away and I must
continue working, not only by improving the sections already
available or preparing new sections but I think that I also need to
introduce a social approach on the site. I am currently looking into
ways of making people aware of the needs and problems that arise
around the world not only regarding children but also regarding the
other great forgotten, the animals.

When we talk about animals in need of our attention we must divide
them into two different sections, first of all the animals in danger
of extinction, people don't realize just how many species are
disappearing every day because of our egocentric need for possession
which is taking many environments to be destroyed and many species
to be killed for their tusks or skins, but we don't have to go too
far away to find animals that are in neglect, on a recent visit to
the local dog pound I was absolutely horrified by the number of
animals found there, most people thinks a dog pound would be full of
mongrels too ugly for anyone to want, I can assure you that is far
from the reality, you can find a large number of mongrels but also a
very large number of thoroughbred dogs are to be found, everything
from little poodles or Yorkshires to large Alsatians, collies or
even Saint Bernard's. The most depressing point of all this is that
most of these dogs were Christmas presents which were very loved and
looked after for the first year of their life until they became a
nuisance, reasons like wanting to go away for a holiday and not
having anyone to look after the dog or simply nobody has the time or
desire to look after them any longer.

Remember that the lovely little puppy you have just taken home will
grow into a big dog and will need to be loved and looked after.

I will commit myself to continue my work preparing new sections that
will try and inform people better of the social and humanitarian
needs of the people and animals that form that blue giant called
Earth.